It’s Eric here, I am a Registered Massage Therapist at Sage Wellness, and this is my first blog post.

Let’s start with something common that I get asked about all of the time: head forward posture.

There are increasing reports of health deficiencies related to 8-10 hours, 5 days a week (+) sitting at a desk. The everyday stress and anxiety, combined with extended time leaning forward can cause functional changes in your body. With absorption into our work, and focusing on life management we often forget about our posture. The large amount of time being spent in various positions during desk work can lead to postural imbalance of muscles; requiring attention to strengthen certain muscles and stretching others to off-set this stress on our bodies. Our cervical spine (neck bones normally has a slight curve backwords, and the stressed positioning of the cervical spine for extended periods while forward leaning can cause pressure on the facet (spinal) joints and temporomandibular (jaw) joints. Furthermore, functional changes like leaning on one arm, crossing your legs while sitting, or slouching forward can compress lymphatic vessels, blood vessels and nerve roots. Basically, a lot is happening inside of our bodies that we don’t necessarily feel, but can have pretty major negative effects in the long run.

Many of us have to keep consistent days of work. However, we do have the option of taking some time out to help balance the function of our bodies.

Check out this video for more information, and some ideas for helping to balance your muscles, and prevent head forward posture!